It might be the highest-rated game in the history of the Nintendo DS, but critical success hasn’t translated into commercial victory for Rockstar’s GTA: Chinatown Wars.

The game failed to make the top 10 or 20 best-selling games for the month, and has sold well below the 200,000 copies that Rockstar was hoping for. In fact, only 88,000 copies have been shifted since its release in March.

Industry experts are citing the game’s lacklustre performance as proof that mature titles simply don’t have a chance on the ‘kiddie-friendly’ DS.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

This is potentially a real blow... I haven't had so much fun with a DS game before it seems I'm in a minority! I've tried to persuade my other DS owning friends to buy this too but none have so far! Guess this will shoot down the chance of any more GTA games on the DS then...

Piracy certainly shares some responsibility for the low sales. Just have a look at the rate of download for the torrents of this game. I'd like to see even more proactive anti-piracy actions by Nintendo in the near future, especially with the DSi. Hopefully the firmware updates will be mandatory to play new titles and will silently brick any DSi that has an unauthorized flash cart stuck in it.

I didn't purchase GTA because it's just not the type of game I'm interested in. I was impressed by the review scores it's been receiving, and honestly expected it to have sold a little better. Two of my buddies have it, and they were enjoying it last I heard.

Yeah, what I was going to say. More likely pirated up the wazoo rather than apathy and lack of wanting to play said title; I know lots of people enjoying it and lots of people with R4 devices and the similar (and have never bought a retail DS game in their lives).

It will continue to sell over time. What's the big rush to 200,000? It is still too new, I know I am not going to pay full price for a brand new game. This article needs to be made in like 6 months (not a month after release) to actually give a true picture if it is a success or not.

Other games that sell quite well on the DS (Mario Kart, etc) appeal to a broader base of people, most of which do not know how to deal with flash carts, torrents, etc. The problem with a game like this one is that the demographic at whom it is aimed overlaps considerably with the demographic involved in piracy. Piracy will affect this kind of game far more than other titles that have a broader appeal.

GTA was complete trash in 2D, no one cared about it, the game series only got possible once it hit GTA3.For some reason, all the reviewers out there, absolutly love the GTA series, the most overrated series ever i think. Look at all the 10s GTA4 got for example. It was alright...but not perfect by any means. This game sold where it should have.

More demos = less piracy. I've technically pirated games just to demo them, but ended up uninstalling and deleting them after a quick try. I've also downloaded games, tried them out, and then bought them. Makes more sense than blowing $40-60 on a chance when you're on the fence and w/o a demo.

I think piracy may play a larger part in this DS game than others because it appeals to an older demographic. This demographic is more savvy in terms of "appropriating" media, IMO. On the other hand, they're also the ones with jobs and money to purchase... so who knows.

2D GTA doesn't bother me, but the fact that there's a cop every 10 feet does. Still a good game though, from what little I've seen.

gta userbase was average aged 12 in uk when all the anti gta and manhunt thing was going on after one teen murdered another.............

the average age of a zelda and mario game was proven 26

26 vs 12 AGAIN IMMATURE NOT MATURE DONT CONFUSS THE TWO

ITS 12 YEAR OLD CHAVS CALLING THEM SELFS """"""MATURE""" BECAUSE THEY LIKE GTA

AND ITS THE SAME """""""""KIDS"""""""" CALLING NINTENDO FRACHIZES KIDDY IN FORUMS NO ADULT GAMER WOULD CALL MARIO KIDDY AS ONLY A KID IS """""""""""""""""""""""IMATURE ENOUGH TO SAY THAT GET IT NOW""""""""

@warioswoods #18: Careful there! What you wrote there seems to suggest that people who play games about theft are more likely to steal games. Don't want mainstream media picking up on that statement straight from a gamer, do you?

Anyway, you guys have no IDEA how many people have shown interest in the game at Gamestop right up until they're told it's DS exclusive. That has DEFINITELY been a HUGE factor in its lack of sales.

@ 33. Stuffgamer1: That's not what he's saying. He's saying the market GTA is aiming at are the kind of people who don't see any problems with stealing (or as they call it "getting free") games, becuase they can.

A group of kids at my school (GTA fans, of course) constanly make fun of me for not pirating games. I'm not even going to bother explainign them that their killing the game indistry, but I guess they're only killing games that they like, so it's their loss.

I don't think that GTA is on the wrong platform. Everybody is just impatient and looking for any little thing so they can criticize the Wii or DS. People complain about the lack of "hardcore" titles and then Chinatown Wars and MadWorld are released and sell below expectations. Then people want to say that "hardcore" titles don't sell on Nintendo consoles when the same people complain that dust is collecting on their Wii and DS and the funny thing is they don't even own a copy of those games.

I bought this game the day it came out and it really upsets me that a game of this quality is being overlooked. The same with MadWorld; I picked it up on day one and I was under the impression that both of these titles were what the "hardcore" fans were waiting for. Now I read that MadWorld sold even less than GTA:Chinatown Wars did. What are people thinking?! GTA: Chinatown Wars is one of the best games on the DS! If you haven't picked up either of these great games I highly recommend that you do; you won't regret it!

@Big A2: I know that's not what he was saying. Hence the at the end of the paragraph, which is an indicator of sarcasm. Would a have been better?

I agree with your statement, anyway. I don't want to kill the game industry, so that makes pirating look stupid to me. I don't mind downloading ROM's of games that have been discontinued and are not available in any format, but new DS games? NO WAY!